Heating air by flat plate collectors is widely known as are the advantages for such collectors. The present invention relates to a solar collector which will heat air for use directly within the building being heated unlike other collector devices that are used in systems where the medium passing through the collector is used in a heat exchanger to in turn heat another fluid, the latter which is used to heat the atmosphere within a building.
A wide variety of collector types are known, and of those, a number employ a type of fiber or filament adsorber that is blackened in order to aid in the collection of solar energy. Exemplary of such devices are Brinn et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,067,316; Ashman et al., U.S. Pat. No. 3,220,671 and Heyen et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,119,083. The types of fibers used include mineral or glass wool, blackened fiber glass or blackened lathe turnings or wool-like material or a blackened gauze material.
Other collector structures are known which employ a channel structure in a top layer directly beneath a transparent foil or film in which water can flow, as in Sarazin et al., U.S. Pat. No. 3,996,092, while others employ a plurality of stacked hollow areas through which air can sinuously move, sometimes about baffle structures as in Yu, U.S. Pat. No. 4,154,222, and Skrivseth, U.S. Pat. No. 4,099,513. The baffles are provided to produce a more turbulent flow, usually about both sides of a blackened absorber plate so as to increase the heat exchange relationship of the air passing through the collector about that plate.
Collectors are also known where insulation is used about the side and rear walls as in Schriefer, Jr., U.S. Pat. No. Re. 30,136 and Weinstein, U.S. Pat. No. 4,141,339, and other patents which are of general interest include: Lof, U.S. Pat. No. 4,072,142; Lewis, Sr., U.S. Pat. No. 4,156,419; Erb, U.S. Pat. No. 4,178,914 and Burgen, U.S. Pat. No. 4,219,012.